Chapter 23
That evening, Alice took a while deciding what to wear. Not because she was trying to impress, but because she was out of the habit of going anywhere in the evenings except to take Bear for a wee.
‘I just don’t know if I have small talk in me,’ she said to the dog, who looked up at her from where he was sprawled on the floor. ‘I’ve only really chatted to you for a few months, and it’s very one sided.’
He yawned, like he was bored of her too, and she chuckled. ‘Okay, let’s go.’ She pulled on her coat, picked up a bottle of wine she’d bought at the Coop, and they made their way out into the night air.
The snow was thick underfoot, and hardened on the very top by the cold air and lack of fresh powder from the day. Her breath was pluming in front of her face, and she held Bear tightly as they walked back up towards the neighbouring house. Before she knocked on the door she took a moment and looked back at the mountains in the gloom, the stars and moon hovering over them and casting pale light on their rugged surfaces.
She hoped tonight went well. She hoped they didn’t ask her too many questions, she’d much rather sit back and listen to them talk. She hoped she could come home early.
When David opened the door she was greeted with the warmth of an old friend. There was no stuffy, stilted small talk, no awkward tour of the house, no questioning ‘What can I do to help?’ Instead she was swept straight in through their living room to the open-plan kitchen, where the radio was playing, a glass of wine had already been poured for her, and a conversation about the Harry Potter movies was mid-flow.
‘Hey, Alice,’ cried Lola. ‘Could you chop up these onions for me? Drink up, drink up. Bear, you want a carrot? I’m just saying, in the later movies Draco was hot.’
‘We went with pasta!’ explained Marco, who appeared to be head chef for the evening, but everyone was helping out with their own jobs, cooking and chopping and sautéing and boiling. It felt very equal, and even Bear wanted to be in on the action so settled with his carrot right in the middle of the kitchen floor.
Noah edged around the dog, shifting his chopping board to the left with no bother. ‘But the character was an asshole. All that eyebrow-raising.’
‘He wasn’t an asshole, he was misunderstood,’ Lola countered.
‘Like you, Noah,’ added Marco, and chuckled.
‘What do you think, Alice? Draco Malfoy, yay or nay?’
‘Neville Longbottom for life,’ she answered, and everyone cheered. Alice laughed. This was so easy, to laugh and feel part of the friendship group, and be normal, but Jill was still dead.
The thought hit her like lightning, sobering her immediately, but she kept her mask in place. It was okay to have a night off from feeling crap, she told herself, finishing with the onions and gulping down her wine.
‘So when does the season actually start here?’ Alice asked. ‘I saw the lift running but nobody seemed to be on the slopes yet.’
‘It’s about a week from now,’ answered David, topping her up. ‘But you’ll start to see people out there from tomorrow or the next day. Instructors getting in a few runs before all the tourists turn up.’
‘It’s so amazing up in the mountains when the runs are really clear,’ Marco enthused. ‘You feel on top of the world.’
‘Did you say you’ve never been skiing or snowboarding before?’ asked Lola, and Alice shook her head. ‘You’re going to have a go while you’re here, though, right?’
‘Um . . . ’
‘Ah mate, you have to. I’ll take you out, we’ll make a day of it.’
Marco drained the pasta. ‘She is a really fun instructor, and you will only break like, three bones maximum.’
Lola swiped him with a tea towel and as a group they continued cooking up the hearty dinner. For Alice, it felt nice to not be in charge. She’d been a dog mum for three months and was always making the decisions and figuring it out, but this evening she was relaxing into the position of guest. And she felt most relaxed because she wasn’t made to feel like a guest, she was made to feel like family.
At the table, with the rich aromas of tomato sauce, red wine and garlic baguettes, and the soundtrack of Bear snuffling his way around the table seeing who would likely be most susceptible to his puppy dog eyes, Marco asked, ‘Alice, how do you know Vanessa?’
‘We met travelling, years ago now, just after university. Another friend and I took a trip around the world and we were on a tour of South America with Vanessa. She was travelling alone, so the three of us ended up hanging out together for a couple of months. We’ve always kept in touch but I haven’t seen her in person since then. Vanessa’s really nice, though, the type of person who you don’t feel like you’ve drifted apart from.’
‘Yeah, David thinks so too.’ Marco snuck a look at his friend.
‘Okay okay, yes, it is the worst kept secret in Switzerland that Vanessa is my dream wife,’ David answered. ‘Everybody knows this.’
‘Except for her.’ added Marco.
Noah snuck a piece of pasta for Bear. ‘Well, you say that, but maybe this is why she’s gone for all of winter, yes?’
David laughed, good-naturedly. ‘This could be true.’
